OraSure Applauds Congress for Passing Legislation to Enable Routine HIV Testing Throughout the U.S. Veterans Health Care System

  
    
  
  
    
      OraSure Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:OSUR), the market leader in oral 
      fluid diagnostics, today issued a statement applauding the U.S. Congress 
      for passage of The Veterans Mental Health and Other Care Improvements 
      Act of 2008 (S. 2162). The bill includes a provision that repeals 
      the 1988 Veterans Benefits and Services law which has limited the 
      implementation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) 
      guidelines for routine HIV testing, counseling and early diagnosis that 
      were issued in 2006.
    
    
      U.S. Congressman Mike Doyle (D-PA-14) and U.S. Congressman Charles Dent 
      (R-PA-15) championed the provision, which now removes significant 
      barriers to routine HIV testing within the U.S. Department of Veterans’ 
      Affairs (VA) making it possible to implement broad-scale HIV screening. 
      The VA is the largest integrated healthcare provider in the United 
      States and the single largest provider of HIV care.
    
    
      The 1988 Veterans Benefits and Services law which is being repealed 
      includes consent restrictions and impedes any universal HIV testing 
      program unless specific funding to do so has been appropriated by 
      Congress. By repealing this law, the VA can now adopt the CDC’s 
      recommendation of streamlined counseling and can implement routine HIV 
      screening in VA health care settings.
    
    
      “OraSure commends Congressman Doyle, 
      Congressman Dent and other members of Congress for enabling a critical 
      new healthcare initiative for veterans nationwide,” 
      said Douglas A. Michels, President and Chief Executive Officer of 
      OraSure Technologies. "We applaud Congress’s 
      efforts to remove the barriers that have limited the access to HIV 
      screening and counseling for all veterans.”
    
    
      About OraSure Technologies
    
    
      OraSure Technologies develops, manufactures and markets oral fluid 
      specimen collection devices using proprietary oral fluid technologies, 
      diagnostic products including immunoassays and other in vitro diagnostic 
      tests, and other medical devices. These products are sold in the United 
      States as well as internationally to various clinical laboratories, 
      hospitals, clinics, community-based organizations and other public 
      health organizations, distributors, government agencies, physicians' 
      offices, and commercial and industrial entities. OraSure Technologies is 
      the leading supplier of oral-fluid collection devices and assays to the 
      life insurance industry and public health markets for the detection of 
      antibodies to HIV. In addition, the Company supplies oral-fluid testing 
      solutions for drugs of abuse testing.
    
    
      The OraQuick ADVANCE® 
      Rapid HIV-1/2 Antibody Test, manufactured and sold by OraSure 
      Technologies, is the first and only U.S. Food and Drug Administration 
      ("FDA") approved and CLIA (Clinical Laboratory Improvements Amendments 
      Act of 1988) waived rapid point-of-care test that can detect antibodies 
      to both HIV-1 and HIV-2 in 20 minutes, using oral fluid, finger-stick or 
      venipuncture whole blood and plasma specimens.
    
    
      For more information on the Company, please go to www.orasure.com.